


Scoop of the Century

by Reecey



Series: Shadows and Ink [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-03-13 03:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3366629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reecey/pseuds/Reecey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Since Bruce Wayne is in town, Lois finally gets her interview. She also decides to snag an interview with the enigmatic butler Alfred Pennyworth.</p><p> Things get a little awkward, however, when Bruce Wayne has a question for her, and there's a crisis at his hotel but no Superman to save the day.</p><p> What's a world renowned reporter to do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It really comes to something when you feel like only two people in the whole world come close to understanding how you feel about someone.

It was my bad luck that those two people were my father and Lex Luthor.

Was, they weren’t the closest anymore.

He was.

I touched my shoulder lightly.

“Lois?”

“Oh, hey Smallville. What’s up?” I smiled, turning to look at him.

“Is your shoulder hurting?”

“Not really.”

He frowned.

God, this irritated me. He was listening to my heartbeat again like he was freaking Daredevil or something.

Well screw him, he could be irritated too.

“I was thinking about Batman.”

His eyes did this… thing. They fluttered narrow for a second and two muscles twitched in his left temple.

He set his face carefully.

“There’s no reason to be scared of him. He wouldn’t dare come here with Superman around.” He sounded cheerful.

“I’m not scared of the Batman, Clark.”

The eye thing again.

Wow, he really didn’t like that.

“He is pretty scary,” he protested. He seemed honest as far as I could tell.

“Clark, he dressed like a giant bat. Bats aren’t scary, bats are cute.”

He didn’t always use his facial expressions to hide his emotions, he put disbelief on his face so that I knew he thought I was crazy.

“Grow up, Clark.”

“Have you ever been caught in a colony of bats?” he asked petulantly.

“Okay, let me restate my argument. One bat isn’t scary. They’re like tiny flying puppies.”

He pouted, apparently he couldn’t argue with that.

I grinned and shook my head as I checked my watch.

“I’ve got to go, I need to get to my interview.”

“I bet Wayne thinks bats are scary,” Clark told me as I pulled on my jacket.

“Money can’t buy good taste, Smallville,” I reminded him as I left the office.

* * *

Bruce Wayne had the penthouse suite. Of course he did.

His butler was the one who answered the call from reception and met me from the elevator.

“Hello, Miss Lane, if you would be so kind to follow me, Master Wayne will be with you in a few moments.”

He lead me to a couch with a full English tea laid out on the coffee table. There were scones.

“I’m glad you approve, Miss Lane.”

I tucked a lock of head behind my ear and smiled in embarrassment.

“It looks really nice.”

He nodded.

“I’ll be back momentarily, I need to reiterate to Master Wayne that you’re here.”

He left me with the cakes. Not his wisest move.

We were three macarons down by the time Mr Pennyworth returned.

“The clotted cream is to your left, Miss Lane. Do be sure to help yourself.”

I did.

“Mr Pennyworth,” I began, spreading cream on a scone, “do you have any free time while you’re in Metropolis?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Why do you ask, Miss Lane?”

“I’m just wondering if you’d be interested in doing an interview about your life as a butler.” A spoonful of jam on top. “There’s a lot of interest in this kind of thing at the moment, you know, with Downton Abbey being so popular.”

He smiled warmly, “I’ll have to see if I can find some time.”

I grinned.

“Alfred, you don’t need to fatten everyone up, you know. I’m sure Miss Lane has a perfectly adequate diet.”

Wayne walked in adjusting his cufflinks. He wore a waistcoat, but no jacket. It made a handsome picture.

“A few cakes and scones never hurt anyone, Master Wayne.”

He chuckled and sat on the couch opposite me.

I took a bite out of my scone.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, Miss Lane.”

“Overslept?”

He gave me an almost offensively charming smile.

“Her name was Lucy.”

I glanced at the bedroom door and gazed evenly at him.

“Let’s get to business, shall we, Mr Wayne?”

“Please, call me Bruce.”

“That wouldn’t be very professional, now would it?” I replied with a ‘nope, not doing that’ sort of smile.

He snapped his fingers.

“Curses.” Then something seemed to occur to him, “wait, what about when we’re not in a professional context?”

That was unexpected.

“I suppose that would be fine, but we only ever meet in a professional context, Mr Wayne.”

“Well, I could ask you on a date.”

The strawberry jam on my scone slipped off onto my skirt as I stared at him.

Mr Pennyworth was quick to arrive with napkins and a damp cloth. I managed to clean the jam off with a little help.

I caught a troubled expression on his face as he helped, as though he was as surprised by this as I was.

“But Mr Wayne, what about Lucy?” I asked as an evasive maneuver.

“Lucy’s a great girl, and she just wanted a fun time.”

I doubted imaginary people cared about fun.

“This would be different,” he added with a nervous smile.

“Mr Wayne, I’m flattered. But I’m already interested in someone.”

I was expecting mild disappointment, at worst some feigned attempt to make the request seem less serious, but he looked really pissed.

“Kent.”

“What? No. Look, Clark’s a great guy,” he clearly didn’t agree with that, “but I’m just not interested in him like that.”

Visible relief.

“Well, alright.” He chuckled quietly, “I’m really sorry, I just do not like that man.”

And he didn’t even know the full story.

“He’s not that bad.”

“I doubt it.”

“Either way, it’s not him,” I reassured him before saying too much. “It’s actually someone from Gotham.”

It was his turn to stare at me. After a second he regained his composure.

“Well, that’s a good sign that you have good taste in men,” he smiled nervously.

“I hate to interrupt, but you do have a busy schedule today, Master Wayne. I’m sure you do as well, Miss Lane."

“You’re right, of course, Alfred,” Mr Wayne smiled confidently, regaining his composure. “We should probably get on with it, then.”

* * *

Perry wasn’t particularly excited about the interview with Mr Pennyworth, but he did concede that it would be a good interest piece.

“You’re lucky it’s a slow news week, Lane,” he warned me.

There was only so many ways to write ‘Superman stopped a gang of criminally stupid bank robbers’ after all.

“Can I borrow Jimmy for some pictures?”

“We have pictures of the guy on file!” Perry protested.

I put my hands on my hips and raised an eyebrow.

“Perry, we have one picture of him on file by himself from seventeen years ago. Let me get a new picture.”

He grumbled, but gave in.

“Fine. But I’m not paying you double time for this!”

“That’s fine,” I grinned, jogging off to find Jimmy.

The kid was hanging around Clark’s desk, browsing through a file on one of the paper’s tablets.

“Whatcha doing?” I asked, sneaking up on him.

He jumped, almost dropping the tablet with a yelp.

“Come on, Lois! I can’t break another tablet, Perry will kill me!”

“Sorry Jimmy.”

Sorry, not sorry.

He pouted.

“I’m trying to find a good picture for Clark’s piece on Wonder Woman's work with women’s shelters around the world.”

“How’s that going?” I asked, slinging an arm around his shoulders and peering at the tablet screen.

He sighed.

“It’s all made up photo shoot shots and crime fighting shots that focus way too much on her cleavage or butt. There’s not one of her just looking at a camera and smiling in costume.”

I patted him on the shoulder, “you’re a good kid Jimmy.”

He shrugged.

“So what’s up, Lois?”

“I need to borrow you for a human interest story. There’s a fancy dinner in it for you.”

He sighed.

“Okay, but you better clear it with Perry this time!”

“Already done, Kiddo.”

* * *

I’d arranged Mr Pennyworth’s interview to take place during the annual gala for the National Alliance on Mental Illness being held at the Metropolis Hilton.

There was an extra emphasis on PTSD this year, so Bruce Wayne made a natural invite.

This was pretty much the only free time Mr Pennyworth had during his visit to Metropolis, so we took advantage of Wayne being in the ballroom all evening.

“Hey, Lois? Are you okay?”

“Huh?” I snapped my attention back to Jimmy as we got to the elevator.

He looked around the lobby.

“Who were you looking for?”

Luckily, the elevator was empty as we got in. Or Unluckily, I guess. I wouldn’t have told Jimmy if there’d been someone else inside.

“I was looking for Bruce Wayne.”

“Huh? Why? You need some eye candy or something?”

“No,” I replied, “he asked me out on a date.”

he yelped so loud it made me jump.

“What?!”

“Jimmy!” I hissed, “shut up!”

“Sorry! It’s just… Bruce Wayne?” During his baffled pause I thought I heard something. “I know Clark was ranting about him last week, but I just thought he was embarrassed, I didn’t think there was any-”

I put my fingers on his mouth without thinking at I strained to hear the strange sound over the elevator.

“Can you hear that?”

Suddenly. I could hear gunshots from somewhere below us. Gunshots and screaming that was growing quieter as we travelled upwards.

Jimmy stared at me with wide eyes.

“Shit.”

I pressed the button for a stop a few floors up as I searched around in my bag for pepper spray and my cellphone.

“Jimmy, I need you to take my bag and head up to Wayne’s suite. Once you get there, call Superman and tell Mr Pennyworth what’s happening.”

“Lois, you can’t go down there.”

I ignored him and handed him my bag.

“I can and I will. Once you’ve explained the situation to Pennyworth, stay with him. If Wayne’s up there, make sure he stays up there, got it?”

He nodded, terrified.

“Please be careful, Lois. You’re still hurt.”

“Don’t worry, kiddo, I’ll be fine.”

It was my floor, so I darted out of the elevator leaving Jimmy behind.

Clark was gonna kill me, but he’d have to get here first.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven't written in first person for a while, but here's the very belated second chapter anyway.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it!

“Master Bruce, you do actually have to  _ leave  _ the suite in order to go to the fundraiser you know.”

“I’m aware, Alfred.”

“Well, are you also aware that you’re going to crease your tuxedo if you sit hunched over the coffee table like that?”

I stood up and started pacing instead.

I hadn’t put my jacket on yet, but that didn’t mean that he was wrong.

“Miss Lane will be here shortly, when she arrives, will you  _ finally  _ go downstairs?”

I nodded.

Alfred sighed.

“I’m not sure if you sitting around here hoping to see her is a regression or some kind of progress.”

“What else am I supposed to do? Break into her apartment in the middle of the night?”

“Progress, then.”

The door buzzer started ringing frantically.

“I think I had better answer that.”

The other side of the door only had Lane’s occasional sidekick on it, he was deathly pale and trembling.

Terrified, obviously.

“Dear lord, Mister Olsen, whatever is the matter? Where’s Miss Lane?”

Alfred ushered him inside.

“She went to the gala, we heard gunshots in the elevator. I told her not to go, but she said she had to, told me to call Superman and that you’d know what to do Mr Pennyworth,” Olsen said in a rush.

“What do you mean, ‘she went to the gala’?” I demanded, stalking up to him. “She went straight into harm’s way?”

What the hell did she think she was doing?

He didn’t seem to notice my difference in demeanour, a look of relief washing over his face at the sight of me.

“Oh, thank god, you’re still up here. Lois was worried you were already down there.”

Alfred had his arm protectively around the boy’s shoulders.

“It’s alright Mr Olsen, we’re all safe here. Now tell me, did you already call Superman?”

Olsen nodded hurriedly.

“I did it in the elevator, but he didn’t answer like he usually does.”

My stomach sank.

If the boy scout wasn’t here, then Lois was in serious danger.

“Did you call the police?” Alfred asked.

“Yes, I did.”

“Good lad, you’ve done a good job,” Alfred continued softly, rubbing Olsen’s arm and leading him to the sofa. “You rest here for the moment.”

Olsen stared at his hands as he sat, the shock of the situation still washing over him.

Alfred stepped over to me, his voice in low, hushed tones.

“What now?”

“I’ll pretend to have a panic attack, keep the boy busy and safe.”

He nodded.

At that moment, Olsen’s phone went off.

He jumped before fumbling for it from his pocket.

“It’s Lois! She says she’s got a good vantage point, looks like there are six of them.”

“Six of them?” I asked, putting a waver in my voice.

“Uh, yeah, all with automatics.”

I staggered backwards to my room.

His eyes widened and he stood up.

“No, Mr Wayne, everything is gonna be okay! Superman’ll come and deal with it, Mr Pennyworth will be able to keep us safe! It’s okay, everything's gonna be okay!”

I slowly shook my head, eyes wide in terror before turning on my heel and fleeing towards my bedroom, slamming and locking my door behind me.

After that is was a simple case of getting into the suit and climbing out of the window.

If Lois could see six of them, that must mean in the ballroom itself.

She must have gotten into one of the upper level maintenance rooms for the lights.

She was valuable up there, but would she be smart enough to stay put, or was she going to do something even more stupid?

I was almost all of the way down the side of the building when there was a beep in my ear and Alfred spoke to me.

_ “We’ve sealed off the lift and barricaded the fire escape, sir. The boy is perfectly safe.” _

“Good, has Lane given you any more information?”

_ “She has, she says that the gunmen have some kind of device with them. She believes that it is what they plan to escape with, but that they have yet to make their intentions known. She has also instructed Mr Olsen and I to call the police and feed them any and all information she sends to him.” _

“Anything else?”

Alfred’s tone turned dry,  _ “she said she was glad to know that you were safe locked in your room away from all of this.” _

“Pass anything she gives Olsen onto me.”

_ “Of course, I will have to hack his phone in the event of photos or video, I’m afraid.” _

“Patch up his security when we’re done here.”

_ “Of course, sir.” _

I patched myself into the MPD wavelength.

_ “What the hell are you doing here, Batman?” _ Chief Maricela Garza demanded once I was handed to her, _ “this isn’t your territory.” _

“Considering how many of your city’s criminal families have dealings with Gotham, let’s say I’m reevaluating that. Now, tell me who's coming.”

_ “Who's coming?”  _ she barked with a bitter laugh,  _ “nobody’s coming! Didn’t your super-chums let you in? Some ancient entity beyond mortal ken just popped up in San Francisco and all hands but yours are on deck. It’s just you, me and Lane now, Batman.” _

I growled, approaching a window on the same floor as those maintenance rooms Lois must have used.

“Fine then. Tell me what you know.”

_ “What I know is that we have them surrounded and that this is now a hostage situation. There are at least six men inside the ballroom, but there are four more on the outside holding the atrium inside. I have armed men staring them down as we speak.” _

Shit.

“Have you told Lane about the four other men?”

_ “I told the Olsen kid to tell her. He’d be more valuable to me down here with that phone, but he’s refusing to move.” _

“What are they demanding?”

_ “Nothing yet. They’ve got ulterior motives, but I don’t have a damned what those are.” _

_ “They’re collecting up all of the valuables, sir,”  _ Alfred told me.

Thieves? They had to be after something specific, this was one hell of a risk to go through for random loot.

_ “Lane just checked in, she says-” _

“I know.”

_ “How do you- god, you’re a bastard.” _

“Do you have line of sight on the least defended part of the ballroom?”

Garza clicked her tongue in irritation.

_ “My boys say the west side is less watched now they’re collecting items.” _

I tapped my ear piece.

“West side is undefended according to Garza, does Lane corroborate?”

_ “Yes, she does. Garza had Mr Olsen tell her you were here, she’s taken a photo, I’ll send it through.” _

I tapped my earpiece to swap back to Garza as the image came through on the panel on my left gauntlet.

Garza’s boys were right, and Lois had moved. She was on the upper floor of the ballroom.

I broke the lock on the window and slipped inside.

The corridors were empty, everybody either evacuated or hiding in their rooms.

I had a limited amount of time to get around to the west side of the ballroom, five minutes at most.

Three voices came in rapid succession.

_ “Tell me when you’re about to go in, I don’t want my men shooting you.” _

_ “Miss Lane says that Blanche Simmons is refusing to hand over her necklace. She suspects that it might be the attacker’s target.” _

_ “Batman, I know you said you were unavailable tonight, but this situation in San Francisco is really getting out of hand. We need you over here.” _

I answered Garza first.

“Understood.”

Alfred didn’t need an answer, but my time was even more limited than I first estimated.

I tapped my earpiece twice to get to the third line.

“You’re going to have to manage without me, Diana, I’m dealing with a hostage situation in Metropolis.”

_ “Understood. I’ll tell Kal that you have it covered. Out.” _

Back to keeping Garza’s line open.

I skidded to a halt in front of the western maintenance door. The use of key cards making it easy to get the door opened.

“I’m going in Garza.”

_ “God, I wish you were in fuschia,” _ she muttered. _ “Alright. Try to make yourself obvious in there if we need to start shooting.” _

“Understood.”

_ “I also wish you’d say something else. Just don’t die in there, Batman.” _

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

She chuckled briefly and I slipped inside.

Simmons was still arguing with the armed man trying to take her necklace. One was standing behind her, all three underneath where the upper floor hung over the lower.

“I’ll write you a damn cheque, how much do you want?”

“Just hand over the necklace, lady.”

“No,” she snarled. “This is a valued family heirloom, I will not hand it over to scum like you!”

The man in front of her sighed and raised his gun to her face.

“I didn’t wanna have to do this, but you’ve forced my hand.”

There wasn’t enough time to look for Lane.

I pulled a batarang out of my belt and threw it at the man aiming at Simmons before leaping from the walkway down to ground level.

It hit his hands and he screeched, dropping his gun.

Simmons dropped to the ground and the man behind her whirled to face me, readying his gun, but he never got the chance to shoot.

A full vase dropped from the upper floor and hit him on the back.

He dropped to the floor and disintegrated as the four remaining armed men scrambled to deal with both me, and the threat on the upper floor.

“Garza! The armed men aren’t real!” I shouted, running at full pelt at the gunman scrambling for his weapon with cut hands, stamping on his neck to take him down as I heard screeches above me.

Gun fire sounded from the atrium and one of the remaining three gunmen fired at me.

I dodged to one side, a bullet glancing my off my armour and harmlessly into a wall along with his missed shots.

Three rapid shots from above me and the shooter collapsed into dust.

“Two of you! Two of us!” Lois called from the upper floor, “and the cops are coming!”

With terrifying speed, one turned to the other and shot him before shooting himself.

There was a brief moment of quiet.

“Lane?” I asked, looking up to see her holding one of the perp’s guns, nozzle over the railing. She took a step back and dropped it, sprinting to the stairs and running down them.

Her feet were bare, her tights were torn, and the left side of her face had a large red welt on it, but apart from that, she was fine.

“Are you okay? Did he get you?” she asked, pausing in front of me.

“I’m fine, it glanced off my armour.”

She almost doubled over in relief before throwing herself at me.

“Oh my god,  _ Gotham _ , I was so scared!”

_ “The fuck is up with her and capes?” _

“The room is clear, Garza.”

_ “I’d guessed that from her impassioned cry and the lack of gunfire.” _

“ _ Goodbye _ , Garza.”

_ “Yeah, you too, and make sure you get out of there. I’ll have you arrested on sight.” _

I cut off the line and, with one arm firmly around Lois’ waist, took us both up to the catwalk.

She clung onto me in surprise.

“There’s more privacy up here,” I told her, pulling her through into the corridor. “For a few minutes, anyway.”

“Camera,” she reminded me.

One of my newer gadgets covered the lense with a thick black substance, rendering it useless.

She curled her hands into my cape just where it met my cowl and pulled me down for a kiss.

This time I wrapped my arms around her, buried one hand in her hair.

“You’re an idiot and you’re going to get yourself killed,” I murmured when we parted.

“I’m surprised you’re still alive,” she whispered back, hand lifting to my cheek and thumb tracing the edge of my mask.

I smiled.

“You’d better let Olsen know you’re safe.”

“Yeah, him an-” her eyes widened. “Oh shit,  _ Wayne _ . He’s probably having a major panic attack right now.”

She pressed her hands against my chest to signal she wanted me to let her go.

I didn’t.

“Let me go, Gotham.”

“Put two and two together, Lois,” I replied in the lighter tone I used in my civilian identity.

Her eyes shot wide.

“What,  _ again _ ?” She shook her head and pulled me down for a shorter kiss. “We can smooch upstairs, I’ll use the lift. You’ve gotta move fast.”

A curt nod and we parted ways, her down the corridor and me through the window.

 

* * *

 

We rendezvoused back in my suite, my equipment was safely packed and hidden away and I was damp from a quick shower to clean off the smell of leather and sweat, dressed in pyjamas

Shakily, I left my room.

Olsen jumped to his feet.

“Mr Wayne! Are you feeling better?”

I nodded.

“You said Miss Lane was back?”

I looked around the room, zoning in on her when I saw her and sprinting over to drag her up from the sofa and hold her close.

I let out a shuddering breath.

“Oh god, you’re okay. Thank  _ god _ you’re okay.”

She put her arms around my waist.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Please,” I begged, “ _ never _ do that to me again.”

Her hands tightened on my back.

“I… I didn’t know you felt that way.”

I pulled back so I could look into her eyes, her surprise at my words was genuine.

“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before,” I told her.

She buried her face in my chest in embarrassment.

Alfred coughed.

“I think, perhaps, the two of you should talk in your room, Master Wayne. Spare the young Mister Olsen’s blushes?”

“Of course.”

I took Lois’ hand and lead her into my bedroom, closing the door behind us and giving her a long, deep, kiss.

“How much of that was acting?” she asked after, fingers tangling in my hair.

“Not much,” I admitted.

“Good.”

She pulled me to the bed and tugged me to sit next to her.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but can I stay over just so we can sleep next to each other?”

“Whether or not I can stay depends on how bad San Francisco is.”

“You didn’t hear? The entity disappeared around the time the last two gunmen went down.”

“So this isn’t just coincidence or opportunism.”

“Doesn’t look like it. Garza is going to want to talk to both of us at some point.”

“And we’re going to need to talk to Blanche Simmons.”

Lois started playing with the hem of my top.

“Damn straight we are, but that can wait until morning.”

“Everything can,” I replied, placing a kiss on her temple.

**Author's Note:**

> BTW, I don't actually hate Superman.


End file.
